Books Where Is the Eye of the Beholder?
posted by on April 17 at 17:54 PM
Presumably in preparation for the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons that’s going to come out in June and totally own your world, the good folks at Wizards of the Coast are schlepping a thirteen-foot tall Beholder (above) around town for a week. You’ve already missed today’s visit to the Seattle Public Library, but there are three magical appearances still to come:
Rat City Rollergirls Bout 2Tuesday 4/22/08 9.00am-1.00pm
Zanadu Comic ShopTuesday 4/22/08 2.00pm-6.00pm
Cafe Umbria
If you’re blissfully unaware but would like to lose your nerd maidenhead, here’s part of the Wikipedia entry for Beholders.
A Beholder is an aberration comprising a floating spheroid body with a large fanged mouth and single eye on the front and many flexible eyestalks on the top.A beholder’s eyes each possess a different magical ability; the main eye projects an anti-magical cone, and the other eyes use different spell-like abilities (disintegrate objects, transmute flesh to stone, cause sleep, slow motion of objects, charm animals, charm humans, cause death, induce fear, levitate objects, and inflict serious wounds.)
…
Beholders are extremely xenophobic, to the point of being engaged in a violent intra-species war with others of their kind who differ even slightly in appearance. They will sometimes take members of other, non-beholder races as slaves. Beholder communities in the Underdark often, when provoked, wage war on any and all nearby settlements, finding the most resistance from the drow and illithids
So you drow and illithids might want to steer clear of Pioneer Square next Tuesday.
My level 15 psionic levels are no match
Oh, please... is there any chance of some drow and illithids showing up to pick a fight? I'd love pictures of that. Seriously, anyone? =)
bitches were @ central library as well. i almost hit the car in front of me. it's not a very safe ad scheme.
#2 That would be awesome, but I don't have the prep time for that.
Pics of the Beholder erection in front of the Downtown Library here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joandirk/sets/72157604590619702/
Drow chicks are HAWT.
That is all I had to say.
@6 Agreed 100%.
A shame I won't be able to get down there next week; it'd be far too fun a costume opportunity to pass up.
I don't know - I still think your basic run of the mill Balrog is still scarier (but I have to admit - my D & D monster manual is in a box buried in my storage space, so I can't comprehensively stack them up on the numbers toe to, um ...toe?).
@8- I believe the Tolkien Estate is even scarier than your Balor.
So, is someone going to DM a Slog D&D party or what?
I'll second Jessica's query and nominate Paul Constant for Dungeon Master.
The Rat City bout is actually tomorrow evening. Here's the actual Beholder schedule, according to your link:
Rat City Rollergirls Bout 2
Saturday 4/19/08 4:00pm-9:00pm
Hangar 30 at Magnuson Park
6310 N.E. 74th Street
Seattle, WA 98115
Game Shop
Tuesday 4/22/08 9.00am-1.00pm
Zanadu Comic Shop
1923 3rd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Coffee Shop
Tuesday 4/22/08 2.00pm-6.00pm
Cafe Umbria
320 Occidental Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
Damn, I left my +5 sword at home...
It's kind of a shame that the Beholder has become the iconic D&D monster, because they're, well, kinda dorky. Dorky in the "I may be funny-looking, but I have eleven different magical powers with which to flense your sorry carcass from across the room and if that doesn't work I can just gnaw your head off" sort of way, but dorky nonetheless.
I get the feeling that, like many old-skool D&D monsters, they were designed to put the kibosh on overconfident players. Like ear seekers (little parasitic worms that live in doors so when you try to listen at the door they burrow into your brain), the varying different monsters that disguise themselves as floors or walls or treasure chests and then crush you to death, or - everyone's favourite - gelatinous cubes: near-invisible, mindless 10-foot cubes of acidic gelatin that slurp slowly down dungeon corridors (which, back in the day, were nearly always 10' wide by 10' high because that's easier to draw on graph paper).
This is the dorkiest comments thread ever. I am totally going to get my picture taken with it at the bout on Saturday.
@14 I think the beholder is the perfect monster for this; dragons, while awesome, are not uniquely D&D enough for brand association. Gelatinous Cubes are D&D enough, but a clear 10'x10' cube just wouldn't draw enough attention. Man-sized monsters - Illithids are uniquely D&D - just aren't big enough, and might just creep people out. So, Beholder is the perfect BBEG for the job! (Invisible Stalker, anyone?)
Shame I don't live anywhere near Washington.
@16 I'm not denying that; I'm lamenting it :)
Sorry losers, but with that graph paper reference Breklor@14 totally *p0wnd* the geekage on this thread. Totally.
@Peter F: Beholder erection?
I just saw the beholder on Virginia and 3rd. They were filming for something down their!
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